Fritz Haarmann
Friedrich Heinrich Karl "Fritz" Haarmann was a German serial rapist and serial killer, known as the Butcher of Hanover, the Vampire of Hanover and the Wolf Man, who committed the sexual assault, murder, mutilation and dismemberment of at least twenty-four young men and boys in the city of Hanover between 1918 and 1924.
Found guilty of twenty-four of the twenty-seven murders for which he was tried, Haarmann was sentenced to death by beheading in December 1924. He was subsequently executed by guillotine in April 1925.
Haarmann became known as the Butcher of Hanover due to the extensive mutilation and dismemberment committed upon his victims' bodies, and by such titles as the Vampire of Hanover and the Wolf Man because of his preferred murder method of biting into or through his victims' throats.
Early life
Childhood
Fritz Haarmann was born in Hanover on 25 October 1879, the sixth and youngest child born to Johanna and Ollie Haarmann.Haarmann was a quiet child, with few friends his own age or gender, and who seldom socialized with any children outside of school, with the exception of his siblings. From an early age, Haarmann's behaviour was noticeably effeminate, and he was known to shun boys' activities, instead playing with his sisters' dolls and dressing in their clothes. He also developed a passion for both needlework and cookery, and would develop a close relationship with his mother, who spoiled her youngest child.
Reportedly, Haarmann's father married his mother when she was 41 years old and seven years his senior, largely due to her wealth and the substantial dowry their marriage would eventually bring him. Haarmann Sr. was known to be argumentative and short-tempered and conducted several affairs throughout his marriage. Via his infidelity, he contracted syphilis in his later years. Despite his father being an authoritarian who had little time for his children and a notorious womanizer, Haarmann's parents remained together until his mother's death in April 1901.
In 1886, Haarmann began his schooling; he was noted by teachers to be a spoiled and mollycoddled child who was prone to daydreaming. Although his behaviour at school was noted to be exemplary, his academic performance was below average, and Haarmann had to repeat a school year twice. On one occasion, when he was about eight years old, Haarmann was molested by one of his teachers, although he never discussed this incident in detail.
Haarmann grew into a trim, physically strong youth. With his parents' consent, he finished his schooling in 1894. Upon leaving school, Haarmann briefly obtained employment as an apprentice locksmith in Neuf-Brisach before opting at age 15 to enrol in a military academy in the town of Breisach. His military training began on 4 April 1895.
Adolescence and first offences
Haarmann initially adapted to military life and performed well as a trainee soldier. However, after five months of military service, he began to suffer periodic lapses of consciousness which, although initially described by a medical professional as being sudden signs of anxiety neurosis, were subsequently diagnosed as being "equivalent to epilepsy" in October 1895. The following month, Haarmann discharged himself from the military and returned to Hanover, where he briefly worked in a cigar factory his father had established in 1888.At age 16, Haarmann committed his first known sexual offences, all of which involved young boys whom he would lure to secluded areas—typically cellars—before proceeding to sexually abuse them. He was first arrested for committing offences of this nature in July 1896. Following further offences, the Division for Criminal Matters opted to place Haarmann in a mental institution in the city of Hildesheim in February 1897. Although briefly transferred to a Hanover hospital for psychiatric evaluation, he would be certified as being "incurably deranged" and unfit to stand trial by a psychologist named Gurt Schmalfuß. Schmalfuß ordered Haarmann to be confined at the mental institution indefinitely. He was returned to the institution on 28 May 1897.
Seven months later, in January 1898, Haarmann escaped the mental institution and, with apparent assistance from his mother, fled to Zürich in Switzerland. Here, he lived with a relative of his mother and obtained employment as a handyman in a shipyard. Haarmann remained in Zürich for sixteen months before he returned to Hanover in April 1899. Early the following year, he seduced and subsequently became engaged to a woman named Erna Loewert, who soon became pregnant with his child. In October 1900, Haarmann received notification to perform his compulsory military service.
Military service
On 12 October 1900, Haarmann was deployed to the Alsatian city of Colmar to serve in the Number 10 Rifle Battalion. Throughout his service, he earned a reputation among his superiors as an exemplary soldier and excellent marksman, and he would later describe this period of service as being the happiest of his entire life. After collapsing while on exercise with his battalion in October 1901, Haarmann began to suffer dizzy spells and was subsequently hospitalized for over four months. He was later deemed "unsuitable for service and work" and was discharged on 28 July 1902.Discharged from the military under medical terms described as being "probable" dementia praecox, Haarmann was awarded a monthly pension of twenty-one gold marks. He returned to live with Erna in Hanover, briefly working again in his father's cigar factory. However, he soon filed a maintenance lawsuit against his father, citing that he was unable to work due to the ailments noted by the military. Haarmann's father successfully contested the suit, and the charges were dropped. The following year, a violent fight between father and son resulted in Haarmann's father himself unsuccessfully initiating legal proceedings against his son, citing verbal death threats and blackmail as justification to have his son returned to a mental institution. These charges were dropped due to a lack of corroborating evidence. Nonetheless, Haarmann was ordered to undertake a psychiatric examination in May 1903. This examination was conducted by a Dr. Andrae, who concluded that, although morally inferior, Haarmann was not mentally unstable.
With financial assistance from his father, Haarmann and his fiancée opened a fishmongery. Haarmann himself briefly attempted to work as an insurance salesman before being officially classified as disabled and unable to work by the 10th Army in 1904. As a result, his monthly pension was slightly increased. The same year, his fiancée, while pregnant with his child, terminated their engagement after he accused her of having an affair with a student. As the fishmongery was registered in her name, Erna simply ordered her fiancé to leave the premises.
Criminal career
For the next decade, Haarmann primarily lived as a petty thief, burglar, and con artist. Although he did occasionally obtain legitimate employment, he invariably stole from his employers or their customers. Beginning in 1905, he served several short prison sentences for offences such as larceny, embezzlement, and assault. On one occasion when working legitimately as an invoice clerk, Haarmann became acquainted with a female employee with whom he later claimed to have robbed several tombstones and graves between 1905 and 1913. Consequently, Haarmann spent the majority of the years between 1905 and 1912 in jail.In late 1913, Haarmann was arrested for burglary. A search of his home revealed a hoard of stolen property linking him to several other burglaries. Despite protesting his innocence, Haarmann was charged with and convicted of a series of burglaries and frauds. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for these offences.
Due to compulsory conscription resulting from the outbreak of World War I, Germany saw a shortage of available domestic manpower. In the final years of his prison sentence, Haarmann was permitted to work throughout the day on the grounds of various manor houses near the town of Rendsburg, with instructions to return to prison each evening. Upon his release from prison in April 1918, he initially moved to Berlin before opting to return to Hanover, where he briefly lived with one of his sisters before renting a single-room apartment in late August 1918.
File:Food Queues Weimar Republic 1918 Hanover.jpg|right|thumb|The years following the loss of World War I saw an increase in poverty, crime, and black market trading in the Weimar Republic.
According to Haarmann, he was struck by the poverty of the German nation as a result of the loss the nation had suffered in World War I. Through his initial efforts to both trade and purchase stolen property at Hanover Central Station, Haarmann established several criminal contacts with whom he could trade in contraband property, and he immediately reverted to the criminal life he had lived before his 1913 arrest.